The emergence of video applications and video capable devices have contributed substantially to the increase of video traffic on Internet. New mechanisms recommending video rate adaptation towards delivering enhanced Quality of Experience (QoE) at the same time making room for more sessions. This paper introduces a cross-layer QoE-aware architecture for video traffic over the Internet. It proposes that video sources at the application layer adapt their rate to the network environment by controlling their transmitted bit rate dynamically; and the edge of network at the network layer protects the quality of the active video sessions by controlling the acceptance of new session through a video-aware admission control. In particular, it will seek the most efficient way of accepting new video session and adapting transmission rates to free up resources for more session while maintaining the QoE of active sessions. The proposed framework will contribute to the preparation for the extreme growth of video traffic in the foreseeable future. Simulation results show that the proposed cross-layer architecture guarantees the QoE for the admitted sessions and utilizes the link more efficiently comparing to the rate adaptation only architecture.